These cathartic reflections become even more pronounced in the second half of Eternal story, which also finds JID flexing a more refined vocal pocket that he says he’s been working on for some time now.

“I had to find a vocal coach,” JID reveals when we talk about the melodies he perfected on another standout song. “Really being able to sing is fire, a lot of niggas can’t do that, so I try to rap at the highest level and sing at the highest level.” JID’s improved singing ability on The Eternal Story makes his personal subject even closer to home. The perils of fame and success are often measured by how they affect friends and associates, but rarely by how they complicate family situations. JID raps about the strong bond he has with his brothers on one song, but juxtaposes that with the next track, which is about the broken relationship he has yet to mend with one of his sisters. “My family situation is a strange thing and even the things I talk about here are a bit tricky, so not many of them have heard it,” says JID. “Maybe two, but it’s up to them to listen. I’m not going to do them.

All the themes and introspective storytelling in The Eternal Story is summed up in the narrative track “2007”, which was originally meant to be the album’s outro before he decided to share it with his fans just a week before its release. JID uses the release dates of various influential albums in his life, including J. Cole’s The Come Up, the warm-up, and Cole World: the secondary story, by Kendrick Lamar Item .80, and his The story ever—as checkpoints that chart his path from football phenom to rap star. Family runs deeper than blood, and not only does JID ask Dreamville boss J. Cole to deliver an inspiring story of how they met on the song, plus 8 rare bars from the co-founder of the label Ibrahim Hamad, but his father is also featured on the track.

“You can understand where I got it from,” he says of getting the narration from his dad. “He’s a creative nigga, he writes poetry and shit. We’re really exactly alike, so that’s probably why we’re butting heads,” JID explains with a smirk. There was nothing to tell him to do that, he knew exactly what to do. He did it in a few takes. It’s natural with everything, honestly. The insertion of her pops isn’t the only seamless inclusion on Eternal story, That is; the album contains some impressive features that highlight just how respected JID is in the rap world.